Bridge

Game all; dealer North

North

49 6

!A Q

#A K J 10 7

2K J 10 3

West East

48 4K 5 3 2

!8 6 3 !7 4 2

#9 6 5 4 2 #8 3

2A 9 8 7 26 5 4 2

South

4A Q J 10 7 4

!K J 10 9 5

#Q

2Q

South ended in the wrong slam on this deal and failed to recover. Mind you, in order to do so he would have needed considerable foresight despite the winning play being one that could never cost and might conceivably gain..

This was the (unopposed) bidding: 1# - 14; 22 - 2!; 3NT - 5!; 54 - 64. Clearly somebody should have bid Six No-trumps but perhaps South was keen to claim his 100 for honours.

West led the ace of clubs against Six Spades and switched to a heart. Declarer won on the table and led 49 to the 3, 4 and 8. It was hard to foresee the consequences but South had already made his mistake. From this point, he was unable to reduce his trumps sufficiently to match East's length and still get the lead to dummy. At the end he had to lose a trick to East's king of spades.

South could have made his slam if he had unblocked with 47 under dummy's nine on the first round of trumps. He follows with the six from dummy and the difference is that this holds the trick, leaving the lead on the table. Next he ruffs a club, returns to !A, and ruffs another club. Finally he gets back to dummy by overtaking #Q. South now has the same number of trumps as East and simply leads winners from dummy until East chooses to ruff.